Tag Archives: writing basics

If you’re new to writing you most likely came across the multitude of articles that point out the importance of showing the reader as opposed to telling the reader the story. The reason for the heavy emphasis comes down to the reality that readers are put off by having the story told to them.

Consider the following:

Telling:

Mellisa put on her shoes then ran to the door. When she opened it she saw it was Jake her ex boyfriend. He was the last person she wanted to see because he dumped her on their last date. She slammed the door shut.

Showing:

Mellisa grabbed her shoes and ran for the door. Jake? “Seriously?” she lashed out. “I thought it was over?” Before Jake could explain the door was already shut.

Most readers will find the second one more pleasing. The reason is that it elicit’s a visual of the scene. Readers, especially voracious readers, tend to prefer passages that paint the picture. Fast readers tend to be more visual. Telling causes them to slow down. The only visuals they see are the words themselves. This ends up taking them out of the story….and from then the likelihood they will stop reading increases.

Here’s another example.

Telling:

Mario quickly put the car in fifth gear and then proceeded to pass the other car – a corvette.

Showing:

Mario slammed the stick shift in high leaving the corvette in the trailing cloud of dust.

Which one elicits a visual? Of course the second passage. We can almost smell the burning rubber!

When editing your writing ask yourself if you are telling the reader what’s happening. If so, rewrite it. Practice will definitely make you better at this.

Of course there will be times when you will tell the story to the reader.

Here’s a passage from the novel I’m working on:

Todd’s leg was on fire. Blood trickled down around the knife and down his leg. He took a deep breath and then pulled it out.

The last sentence could have been written like:

He grasped the knife with both hands and felt the blade as it slid out.

It would have worked but I elected to put in the “telling” simply to change things up. Too much colourful language will cause the reader to get tired and adding a bit of telling changes the pace.

Telling occasionally also has the effect of keeping things ‘natural’.

Try changing things up when you edit but if you have to err, err on the side of showing.

Years ago I remember dad telling me to start putting cash away for retirement. I remember scoffing at the idea, not because I thought there was anything wrong with it but because it just seemed so far off in the future.

Today I see things different. As I approach retirement I realized that every cent I would have put in would have amassed along with some interest. The later you wait the less interest you can draw on. The point is you want to start contributing as soon as possible….because you will have more to draw on later on.

Writing

A lot of writers, especially newbies to the craft see writing as a quick transition into a lifestyle. There will always be exceptions to the rules but for the majority of writers — good solid writing only comes from the interest accrued from writing.

The next time you sit down to write keep in mind that the effort will pay off. Even if the writing project doesn’t amount to anything the mere effort you put in will add to your skill level. This applies whether your writing is very good, good, mediocre or just plain lousy. Yes, even the worst writing will later pay off. At some point you will look back and say “Ughhhh! I wrote that!” the real writer will look at that and say “GREAT! I’ve improved to the point where I can recognize bad writing!”

I will be ‘walking the walk’ in writing this article. I’m currently timing myself. Why? Because I have been slowing down. That’s right, slowing down and breaking my own rules.

You see, all of us have a tendency to fall into our Comfort Zone. This is that zone where we become complacent. Like all areas of our life we eventually want to reduce stresses. That’s why we would rather sleep in than get up a half hour early and go for a run.

If you imagine your comfort zone as a circle surrounding you. When you traverse that boundary things tend to get tough. If requires work. However, a special thing happens when you continuously push yourself to do more than what makes you feel good. That’s right your comfort zone circle expands.

So back to walking the walk. What’s that about? Well, I am pushing myself to increase my writing speed. Normally I write comfortably at about one to two thousand words a minute. Today I’ve been raising the bar. I’m writing some four thousand words an hour. Of course doing this takes work. For starters, I had to gradually work my way up. The way to do this is to practice, practice and practice.

To do this properly you should:

Write as fast as you can for a specified amount of time (i.e. like 15 minutes)….and time yourself.

To ensure you are improving you will need to keep track of your writing speed. I use an excel spreadsheet to write down my writing speed. Now sometimes I write for 15 minutes and other times I may go a full hour. You’ll need to normalize your speed and so similar to the way you would keep track of your driving speed (miles per hour) you can express your writing speed as words per hour. So if you write 200 words in 15 minutes your words per hour (or WPH) is 200 x 4 = 800 WPH.

When writing – just write! That means no stopping to go back and fix errors. There’s a time for writing and a time for editing. Nows the time to lay down your first draft. There will be plenty of time later on to go back and edit.

So here’s the walk the walk surprise. I’ve been using this method to write this article. As of NOW the word count is 418. The time writing is 7 minutes. So my WPH is (418 x 60)/7 = 3583 WPH. That’s not bad.

Now you try it.

Here’s an exercise. Write 15 minutes non stop trying to write as fast as you can. Tomorrow try it again but this time try to go a little faster.

Many years ago (back in 1986) I read ‘Creativity The Magic Synthesis’ by Silvano Arieti. This work had a profound effect on my confidence in my pursuit of the arts.

Arieti argued that Creativity is a gift but that it cannot be manifested without hard work. I begged to differ on the idea that we live in a society of ‘gifted’ individuals. I wholeheartedly believe that we are ALL GIFTED to be what we DESIRE TO be. I also don’t mean being mediocre in attainment of our pursuits but rather being truly excellent in our craft. However, and here’s the ‘but’, Arieti’s ‘formula’, requiring the artist to put in considerable effort.

I approach the writing art more from the Anthony Robbins perspective – where you can truly achieve anything you want provided you:

Know what it is what you want.

Take action, take MASSIVE action towards attainment of your goal

Notice if the action you are taking is working or not

If it isn’t – change your approach

….but I digress!

Back to the title of this article “Free Flowing”.

Those familiar with Silvano Arieti’s work will know that he studied schizophrenic patients. He would make observations where his patients would describe something and that thought would ‘morph’ into a related concept.

For example: Patient A would start talking about her cat. The conversation would go something like this:

I love my cat George. He’s only two years old but I feel like he’s been my friend all my life. I named him George because of George Washington. There really isn’t any reason why I picked Washington. I guess its because I did a paper on Washington back in the seventh grade. I was twelve years old in the seventh grade. We lived in the Bronx and dad drove a bus. He loved his job but I don’t think mom was crazy about him being a bus driver. He had an accident and was in the hospital for a week. Luckily no one died.

Arieti noticed that Schizophrenic patients would often flow from one idea to another. Something would link the two thoughts. In non-schizophrenic discussions people normally know to keep the idea flowing from the topic sentence. They may (and often do) shift to a related thought but then will circle back and keep on the main topic.

How can this help you as a writer?

The concept of ‘Free Flowing’ is on some very subconscious level an element of creativity. When momentarily inhibiting your conscious reasoning your subconscious takes over and something truly amazing happens. You begin to pull up associations that are truly creative.

This method of writing may not appeal or even work for everyone but it always does accomplish bringing out elements that one would not normally not accomplish when writing in the natural and reasoning mindset.

Will it work for you?

You can try this exercise:

Begin with the intent to sit down and write for a predetermined amount of time.

Begin with a topic sentence and then write freely.

Don’t stop!

Don’t try to think too hard!

Allow yourself to write pure garbage.

Allow the thoughts to flow and even drift from one topic to another.

Repeat steps 3 to 6 above.

If you did this correctly you will have created something pretty interesting. a lot of it may be totally unusable – and that is absolutely normal. However, you may have achieved some or potentially all of the following:

You may have one or more ideas for stories

You may have wonderful lines of writing that are not only usable but absolutely genius!

You may have developed or fleshed out background for an existing story or for a character.

I hope you enjoyed this. Please let me know in the comments section if this actually helped.

Story A: “Found Footage” film about a group of teens visiting the abandoned insane asylum.

Story B: “Found Footage” film about a group of teens breaking into a highly restricted military hanger.

Despite the overdone found footage genre I bet a number of you would still prefer Story B. The insane asylum, or abandoned prison, etc., has been overdone to death.

Definition:

Cliché – when a writing tool is used over again to a degree that it loses it’s sense of appeal.

What made the original terminator so great? For one thing it was creating an ending that seemed at the time to defy a typical ending. When the truck crashed into the terminator and exploded into flames – everyone thought that was it. Ending it then would have been okay but the story defied the typical cliché and progressed into a new climax – now the terminator was walking and Kyle Reese and Sarah Conner were on the run again!

How come hitting someone on the head always renders the person unconscious? Wouldn’t it be refreshing for once if you hit someone on the head and instead of falling outright or (the other cliché) not having any effect – stumble in pain? Or why is it that women are always victims and men are always perpetrators? Or at least they are depicted that way over and over again.

Clichés can ruin a good story – to do away with them is ask: “what’s too normal about this?” If it is – get rid of it!

Some people just have a knack for writing dialogue, however it takes more than just a “good ear”. There are other important elements that go into effective dialogue writing.

Some writers may believe that eavesdropping on a conversation on a subway car provides instruction for how dialogue should be written. Sure it may sound great. After all how much more real can you get than hearing people engaging in real conversation? Surprisingly their conversation may sound great but it will rarely make it to an award winning work of art. Why? Because writing good dialogue that makes readers fall in love with your characters and drives them to want to continue and finish your novel involves Subtext elements.

To understand what Subtext is all about, consider the following dialogue:

MARY: “What did you do to your hair?”

KATE: “I tried something different. Do you like it?”

MARY: “Well, to tell you the truth – no. It makes you look like a hooker.”

KATE: “Well you don’t have to be so mean about it.”

Now consider the same exchange but with subtext:

MARY: “Did you forget something?”

KATE: “What?”

MARY: “Red Lipstick, and shoes and dress to match? You know something to go with your new hairdo. “

While the first exchange falls flat, the second one provides more dramatic style. Mary simply suggests that Kate looks like a hooker rather than tell her. But even then, the subtext could be even more subtle.

Let’s look at the following exchange between a couple who hate each other – on the day of their wedding anniversary.

BILL: “Happy Anniversary Honey.”

JANE: “Twenty years already.”

BILL: “Twenty happy years. We should celebrate.”

JANE: “It’s so underrated. Let’s do something we both enjoy.”

BILL: “Agreed. There’s a ball game this afternoon. I’ll see if Pete wants to go.”

JANE: “And I’ll ask Betty if she’d like to go to the mall.”

In this exchange, “Something they both enjoy” translates into something that doesn’t involve each other. It works because it falls under the rule of showing not telling. We are showing the feelings each other have for each other.

Next time you write dialogue ask yourself the question Can I write this exchange by showing how the characters feel without being direct? In other words can you use subtext to convey the dialogue?

This post doesn’t have anything that is new. It just cuts to the chase and lets you in on the bare essentials of writing.

First things first….there are many tips – great tips – on writing but never become too prescriptive on your approach. Why? Because every writer is different. Keep what works, drop what doesn’t.

So let’s get started:

Rule 1: Don’t get discouraged!

Here’s a scenario: you’re an avid reader; you work in a dead end boring job; you decide you want to write a novel. You finally sit down to write a novel. You have an idea (perhaps you don’t) and you stare at a blank piece of paper and after 10 minutes you write the first sentence:

It was a rainy night and Bernie was lying dead on the asphalt of his driveway.

You decide you’re tired and go watch TV and the next day you read the first sentence of your first novel. You conclude it’s crap. You decide you’re no writer. Full stop.

Getting discouraged is EASY. It has happened to the GREATEST writers. The single biggest detriment to writing that great novel is YOU. You need to believe in yourself and get passionate about what you’re going to do. It’s not the easiest pursuit but it may be one of the greatest ways to earn a living.

Rule 2: Inspiration doesn’t come – it’s made!

That’s true. Many beginning (and some established) writers only write when inspiration comes. The truth of the matter is that inspiration comes when you take the time to write.

So how do you actually make inspiration come? You need to follow the next rule.

Rule 3: Set aside time each day to write!

Writing consistently is key to gaining momentum on your writing. One of my biggest challenges as a new writer was setting the time each day to write. Then some ten years ago I came across NaNoWriMo. The annual event that challenges writers to write a complete (50,000 word) novel during the month of November. That first year I wrote 63,000 words. The novel turned out to be crap but the experience was key in developing a writing habit. To this day I write every day.

Rule 4: Don’t re-invent the wheel!

There are only a few dozen stories to write. That’s it! Some 20 Plots make up the bulk of any (good) story that has ever been written.

The Plot forms are as follows:

Ascension and Descension

Coming of Age (also called the “Maturation” plot)

Escape

Forbidden Love

Rescue

The Riddle

Rivalry

Underdog

Temptation

Metamorphosis

Adventure

Chase

Discover

Love

Quest

Revenge

Sacrifice

Transformation

Wretched Excess

All great stories come from these basic plots. Learning and mastering their form will make for not only well-rounded stories but also help you in deciding how your story will (and should) develop.

Painters use paint, house builders use bricks – and writers use WORDS.

Influential French novelist – Gustave Flaubert – would spend days searching for the one right word. He believed that success to good literary work required the painstaking task of foraging through until le mot juste – popped off the page. It was no wonder if would take him weeks to write a single page. This technique greatly limited his output – but there is no question as to the quality of his work.

The Right Word isn’t The Biggest One!

Writers, especially beginners believe that you need to replace every word with an obscure replacement from a handy thesaurus. In reality, a simple word is sometimes your best bet.

Which sentence sounds best?

I crossed the field and kicked the ball to the back of the net.

I crossed the field and struck the ball to the back of the net.

I crossed the field and propelled the ball to the back of the net.

There really isn’t a right answer. Choosing the right word isn’t just a matter of context within a sentence. Sometimes the word must reflect the entire paragraph – or page – or chapter. For instance, the more uncommon a word is – the less you should reuse a word. In the above examples, I can get away with using the word “kicked” several times…but using “propelled” would not be advised.

Profanity

Sometimes the right word is a bad one! But be cautious not to overuse them. Doing so will reek of amateurism!

Making your story believable is dependent on your “authoritative voice”. Convincing the reader must be paramount if you want your novel or short story to succeed. Here are some key methods great writers use.

Research

Research is key. Readers are smarter than you think. They can easily sift out “fake facts”. On the flip side, injecting some true researched tidbits can gain you respect from your reader.

But a word of caution….you can OVERDO it! Don’t make your story sound like a Wikipedia article!

Hook The Reader Quickly

Inject tension early in your novel. Doing so (early) tells the reader that the writer – has an important story to tell. Starting the story off too immersed into pointless description and expository is a great way to lose your reader.

Keep the Story Going!

The story should keep the plot going. Think basketball, where the aim of the game is to keep the ball moving and ultimately make the basket. If all you’re doing is dribbling aimlessly your reader will lose interest. Every seen should be directed at moving ‘the ball’ to the ultimate goal (plot goal) or subplot.

As a writer, your ultimate goal is keeping the reader engaged. The techniques above are only a few that are key.